JPH05185704A - Heat transfer printer and ink ribbon running method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a heat transfer printer and its ink ribbon running method, the running cost of which can be reduced, by a method wherein the delivery, during which no printing is performed in the accelerating range of a carriage, of ink ribbon is eliminated. CONSTITUTION:In a heat transfer printer 1, in which a carriage 6 having an ink ribbon running device consisting of a thermal head 8 connectable with and disconnectable from a platen 3, a winding up mechanism 12 for running the ink ribbon wound in a ribbon cassette and a feeding mechanism 13, is made to reciprocate along the platen 3, an unwinding means, with which the ink ribbon fed in the accelerating range of the carriage 6 under the condition that no printing is performed is unwound during the line feed of printing line, is provided.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink ribbon running method and a thermal transfer printer for a thermal transfer printer which prints an image such as a predetermined character on a recording medium such as a sheet by heat generated by a thermal head.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a recording medium such as paper and an ink ribbon coated with a heat-melting ink are supported in front of a platen, and a thermal head having a plurality of heating elements arranged on the platen together with a carriage. An image of desired characters or the like is formed on a recording medium such as paper by selectively heating the heating elements arranged in the thermal head based on the print signal while reciprocating along the print signal based on the print information. The thermal transfer printer that prints
It is widely used as an output device for computers, word processors, and the like because of its low noise, low cost, and ease of maintenance.

In such a thermal transfer printer, the carriage is moved while the thermal head and the platen are in contact with each other, and the ink ribbon sandwiched between the thermal head and the platen moves with the movement of the carriage along with the movement of the carriage. It is designed to deliver equal ribbons.

[0004]

However, in the above-described conventional thermal transfer printer, when printing one line, the ink ribbon is sent out even in the non-printing area. The non-printing area is the acceleration area of the carriage when the thermal head is in contact with the platen (head down) before the start of printing one line and the carriage accelerates to reach a predetermined speed suitable for printing ( (Slow-up) and an acceleration region (slow-down) of the carriage at the time of deceleration until the carriage stops after printing one line.

The acceleration area of the carriage is irrelevant to the number of digits of printing, and it is unavoidable to always provide a predetermined moving distance.
When the number of print digits is small, the amount of ink ribbon not used for printing is large. For example, when printing 10 digits per line, the consumption of ink ribbon for 10 digits used for printing is the same. Unused ribbon for 10 digits is sent out,
There is a problem that wasteful consumption of the ink ribbon increases and running cost also increases.

Further, in the thermal transfer printer that meets the recent demand for higher printing speed, the moving distance of the acceleration region of the carriage is inevitably lengthened, and the amount of unused ink ribbon is increased. However, there is a problem that the running cost is further increased.

The present invention has been made in view of these points, and overcomes the above-mentioned problems in the conventional ones.
An object of the present invention is to provide an ink ribbon running method for a thermal transfer printer and a thermal transfer printer that can reduce the running cost by removing the feeding of the ink ribbon that is not used for printing in the acceleration region of the carriage.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, an ink ribbon running method of a thermal transfer printer according to a first aspect of the present invention is the ink ribbon running method of a thermal transfer printer, in which the ink is fed in the acceleration region of the carriage. The feature is that the ink ribbon is rewound during the line feed operation.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a thermal transfer printer in which a thermal head which can be brought into and out of contact with a platen, a winding mechanism for moving an ink ribbon wound around a ribbon cassette, and a supply mechanism. In a thermal transfer printer formed so that a carriage on which an ink ribbon running device including a mechanism is mounted can be reciprocated along a platen, an ink ribbon fed in the acceleration region of the carriage and not used for printing The rewinding means for rewinding during the line feed operation of the print line is provided.

[0010]

By operating the thermal transfer printer of the present invention in accordance with the ink ribbon running method of the thermal transfer printer of the present invention, the unused ink ribbon sent when the carriage is in the acceleration region is fed to the printing line. Since the ink ribbon can be rewound inside, the disadvantage that the ink ribbon is unused and consumed can be eliminated.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the outline of the overall construction of an embodiment of a thermal transfer printer of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of a winding shaft, and FIG. 3 is a main part showing a winding mechanism. 4 is a vertical sectional view of the delivery shaft, and FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a main part showing a supply mechanism.

As shown in FIG. 1, in the thermal transfer printer 1 of the present embodiment, a platen 3 having a flat plate shape is disposed substantially in the center of a frame 2 so that its printing surface is substantially vertical. A guide shaft 4 is disposed below the front side of the platen 3 of the frame 2 in parallel with the platen 3. A flange-shaped guide portion 5 is formed on the front edge of the frame 2, and a carriage 6 is attached to the guide shaft 4 and the guide portion 5. The carriage 6 is reciprocally driven along the guide shaft 4 and the guide portion 5 by driving a drive belt 7 wound around a pair of pulleys (not shown) by a stepping motor (not shown). It is like this.

A thermal head 8 is attached to the tip of the carriage 6 so as to be opposed to the platen 3 and can be brought into and out of contact with the platen 3 by an appropriate mechanism. Is a ribbon cassette (not shown) for accommodating an ink ribbon and guiding the ink ribbon between the thermal head 8 and the platen 3.
Is designed to be installed.

A sheet insertion port 9 for feeding a sheet (not shown) to the front of the platen 3 is formed at the rear of the platen 3, and the sheet insertion port 9 portion has the sheet at a predetermined speed. A paper feed roller 10 that conveys paper is provided. A pressure contact roller 11 that is pressed against the paper feed roller 10 is rotatably disposed below the paper feed roller 10. The paper feed roller 10 and the pressure contact roller 11 are rotatably disposed.
The sheet inserted from the sheet insertion port 9 is sandwiched between the sheet and the sheet to be conveyed.

The carriage 6 is provided with a winding mechanism 12 and a supply mechanism 13 as an ink ribbon running device, and runs the ink ribbon in the direction of arrow A in the figure.

The ink ribbon running device will be further described.

The winding mechanism 12 has a winding shaft 14 as shown in FIGS. A support flange 15 protruding outward is integrally formed at the lower end of the winding shaft 14, and a winding gear 16 is loosely fitted independently of the winding shaft 14 so as to be rotatable. .. Further, a felt 17 as a slip mechanism is interposed between the lower surface side of the winding gear 16 and the support flange 15 of the winding shaft 14, and an upper end portion of the winding shaft 14 has an upper end portion. A take-up bobbin 18 that is exposed on the upper surface of the carriage 6 and is engaged with a take-up hole (both not shown) of the ribbon cassette is fixed. This winding bobbin 18
Three engaging claws 19 are formed on the outer peripheral surface of the winding bobbin 18 so as to project in three circumferential positions, and an annular holding groove 20 is formed on the lower surface of the winding bobbin 18. An urging spring 21 is disposed on the outer peripheral side of the winding shaft 14 such that the upper end is held in the holding groove 20 of the winding bobbin 18 and the lower end is brought into contact with the upper surface of the winding gear 16. It is set up. The urging force of the urging spring 21 causes the winding gear 16 to be pressed against the support flange 15 of the winding shaft 14 via the felt 17.

A drive gear 24 fixed to a rotary shaft 23 of an ink ribbon take-up motor 22 is meshed with the take-up gear 16 so that the ink ribbon take-up motor 22 is driven to rotate. By rotating the drive gear 24 and the winding gear 16, the rotational driving force is generated by the frictional force of the felt 17 generated by the urging force of the urging spring 21 of the winding gear 16. It is designed to be communicated to.

The winding mechanism 12 may be of various known types and is not particularly limited to this embodiment.

The supply mechanism 13 also has a delivery shaft 26, as shown in FIGS. A support flange 27 that projects outward is integrally formed at the lower end of the delivery shaft 26. A delivery bobbin 28, which is exposed on the upper surface of the carriage 6 and is engaged with a delivery hole (both not shown) of the ribbon cassette, is fixed to the upper end of the delivery shaft 26. On the outer peripheral surface of the delivery bobbin 28, three engaging claws 19 are formed so as to project in three circumferential positions.

Further, a suitable tooth portion 29 is formed on the upper surface of the outer peripheral portion of the support flange 27 of the feed-out shaft 26 to form a rewinding gear 30, and the lower surface side thereof projects outward. Then, a plurality of slits 31, 31, ... Which are equally divided into a desired number are formed to form a slit plate 32.

A drive gear 35 fixed to a rotating shaft 34 of an ink ribbon rewinding motor 33 is meshed with the rewinding gear 30. The drive drive gear 35 is rotated by the ink ribbon rewinding motor 33. By rotating the drive gear 35 and the rewinding gear 30 in the direction opposite to the running direction of the ink ribbon, the ink ribbon is run in the direction opposite to the running direction to rewind.

Further, an appropriate sensor 36 for detecting the amount of rotation of the slit plate 32 is arranged in a desired U-shape so as to surround the slit plate 32 from one side.

Further, the rewinding motor 33 and the sensor 36 are connected to a control section 37 having a control circuit arranged at appropriate positions for detecting slow-up and slow-down.

The supply mechanism 13 also serves as the rewinding means 38 for the ink ribbon as a whole.

Next, the operation of this embodiment having the above-mentioned structure will be described together with the method of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing changes in the moving speed of the carriage 6 during the printing operation.

An area AA in FIG. 6 is a positive acceleration area (slow-up) from when the carriage 6 starts moving while the thermal head 8 is in contact with the platen 3 until a desired speed is reached. Is a printing area in which the moving speed of the carriage 6 reaches a desired speed and the thermal head 8 is driven to print on a recording medium such as paper. Area CC is from the end of the printing operation until the carriage 6 stops. Is the negative acceleration region (slowdown) of. Then, in these areas, the thermal head 8 and the platen 3 are brought into contact with each other in response to the print command, and the ink ribbon is sent out by the same amount as the movement amount of the carriage 6. Then, only in the print area, printing is performed on a recording medium such as paper based on the print information, and in slow-up and slow-down, printing is not performed on the recording medium such as paper. After the slowdown, the carriage 6 is returned to the initial position for the next printing, and a line feed operation is performed to run the recording medium such as paper for one line.

Next, the running of the ink ribbon will be described. In response to a print command, the carriage 6 starts moving, the thermal head 8 is brought into contact with the platen 3, and the ink ribbon running device is further driven. .

The operation of the ink ribbon running device will be described. First, in the take-up mechanism 12 of the ink ribbon running device, the ink ribbon take-up motor 22 is driven, and the take-up gear 16 and the take-up shaft 14 are used. By rotating the take-up bobbin 18, the ink ribbon in the ribbon cassette can run. On the other hand, in the supply mechanism 13 of the ink ribbon traveling device, the rewinding motor 33 is in a free state, and the delivery bobbin 28 rotates as the ink ribbon travels. Then, the slit plate 32 formed on the lower surface side of the support flange 27 of the delivery shaft 26 fixed to the delivery bobbin 28 also rotates in the same manner. Also,
With the sensor 36 that detects the rotation amount of the slit plate 32,
The rotation amount of the slit plate 32 is detected, and its output is sent to a control unit 37 having a control circuit for detecting slow-up and slow-down. Then, the control unit 37 holds information on the amount of ink ribbon delivered by slow-up, print area, and slow-down.

Next, the operation of the ink ribbon running device in the line feed operation described above will be explained.
A control unit 37 having a control circuit for detecting slow-up and slow-down sets the take-up motor 22 of the take-up mechanism 12 of the ink ribbon running device in a free state and drives the rewind motor 33 of the supply mechanism 13. Then, the ink ribbon is rewound. The rewinding amount of the ink ribbon is detected by the sensor 36 and is added to the sending amount of the ink ribbon in the slowdown held in the control unit 37 and the sending amount of the ink ribbon in the next slowup. It is considered to be equal to the amount of movement.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, since the ink ribbon that is not sent for printing and is sent by the slow down and the slow up after the line feed can be rewound during the line feed operation, unlike the prior art, the slow feed is performed. It is possible to surely prevent unnecessary consumption of the ink ribbon sent by the down and the slow-up after the line feed, and reduce the running cost.

In the present embodiment, the slit plate 32 and the sensor 36 are provided in the supply mechanism 13 of the ink ribbon traveling device, but these are the winding mechanism 12 of the ink ribbon traveling device.
However, the present invention is not limited to this example.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, but can be modified as necessary.

[0036]

As described above, according to the ink ribbon running device and the thermal transfer printer of the thermal transfer printer of the present invention, an unused ink ribbon sent out in the acceleration region of the carriage and not used for printing can be reliably transferred at the line feed operation. Since it can be rewound, the consumption of the ink ribbon can be significantly reduced as compared with the conventional one, and the running cost can be surely reduced, which is an extremely excellent effect.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the outline of the overall configuration of an embodiment of a thermal transfer printer of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view of a winding shaft.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a main part showing a winding mechanism.

FIG. 4 is a vertical sectional view of a delivery shaft.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a main part showing a supply mechanism.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a change in carriage movement speed during a printing operation.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Thermal transfer printer 3 Platen 6 Carriage 12 Winding mechanism 13 Supply mechanism 26 Feeding shaft 27 Support flange 28 Feeding bobbin 30 Rewinding gear 32 Slit plate 33 Rewinding motor 35 Driving gear 36 Sensor 37 Control section 38 Rewinding means

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An ink ribbon running method for a thermal transfer printer, wherein an ink ribbon sent in an acceleration region of a carriage is rewound during a line feed operation. 2. A thermal head that can be brought into and out of contact with a platen, and an ink ribbon running device including a winding mechanism and a supply mechanism for running an ink ribbon wound around a ribbon cassette are mounted. In a thermal transfer printer formed so that a carriage can reciprocate along a platen, a rewinding unit that rewinds an unprinted ink ribbon fed in the acceleration region of the carriage during a line feed operation of a print line. A thermal transfer printer characterized by being provided with.